Confusion with Opera Versions

Apologies, I am not at all current in my knowledge of Opera's release versions.

I am still running XP, (SP 3.0, v 5.1.2600). I am still running, and have been since its release, Opera v12.17. But somehow Opera v30.0 got loaded onto my system. (If I caused that it was not intentional.) And today I unwittingly upgraded v30 to v32.0.1948.69.

I now presume that I should be running v32 instead of v12, but the trouble is that neither of these upgrades carried over my Bookmarks, Sessions, or Settings/Preferences -- so I continue to use v12.

Can someone please tell me, (if it is possible), how can I bring these v12 files into v32?

Your Settings/Preferences do not apply to the current version of Opera. It is a completely different program from the ground up.

Sessions

Opera no longer has abuilt in session manager, so they also do not apply. I have Found Session Buddy to be the best session manager that you can install in Opera and it is worlds better than the one that was built into Opera 12. Give it a look.

Bookmarks

Alt+P and use the importer. If that doesn't work out of the box than export your Opera bookmarks as an HTML file and then import them as the same.

Some notes: If you think Opera 12 was the greatest browser ever then you probably wont like newer versions of Opera. They are much more pared down and many features that were little used in the previous version were not brought over. Things are very different and they are not going back to the way they were. Next, it is still very much in development. Some features are incomplete (built-in search engines) or still in flux (speed dial). Finally, Opera auto-updates itself now without asking you. If that is a deal killer you have been warned.

A user has to decide how he wants to come at his online activities. Does he want one-size-fits-all usage (hence one browser), or does he want peak performance for each of several different activities (in which case, more than one browser). Myself, I use the latter approach: I have several different browsers, each used for different things. For example, where speed is needed over fidelity or site compatibility, I use something like Olde Opera or a few others. Likewise, where security matters, I have a couple of browsers that are kept fully up to date with privacy settings nailed down. For general browsing, I have certain others I use, depending on my whim of the day and the changing world of browser evolution. The key to this approach, however, is self-discipline: ALWAYS be willing to open a different browser to do a different kind of thing - especially with regard to security-related matters.

However, that kind of online behavior or self-discipline is not for everybody. In that case, unless one never does anything online involving meaningful personal data that needs security consideration, use the most comfortable-feeling browser that is kept 100% up-to-date. Opera versions prior to Opera 12.17 contain various security flaws, greater or lesser in scope. Opera 12.17 was and probably is up to date in terms of basic security, but the world of site certificates, encryption standards, and web protocols is fast changing. Cert and encryption incompatibilities at secure sites are becoming increasingly problematic with Olde Opera versions, and will only become more so as time goes by. Users can no longer simply assume that new security flaws will be fixed in Olde Opera in a timely way, if only because its Presto engine is largely unsupported any more. Such new flaws will probably lie more in the Internet protocol realm rather than in exploitation of browser code weakness in Olde Opera.

I wasn't referring to "privacy" (or what some misconstrew as privacy, such as analytics); I was referring to drive-by malware, exploits that could steal your actual personal data and/or destroy your irreplaceable files--actual security not-the-tinfoil-hat-kind.

Around Opera 8 or 9 I had to give it up becuase I had too many sites not rendering correctly. I prefer straightforward simplicity, efficiency. I want fast, compatible, extensible and Opera 33 gives me that. I haven't found a faster browser (Edge is faster but it isn't extensible, so it doesn't even qualify).

I just installed Opera 32, upgrading from v. 12.16. I understand blackbird's thinking, but I need to keep my life simple, and one browser is enough, as long as it works well. Opera 12 could no longer properly display an increasing number of sites (such as barnesandnoble.com, where it did not display the portion of a page where you could add an item to your shopping cart). I made the move with some hesitation, but it was necessary.

Opera 32 seems plenty fast to me. I certainly miss the built-in Sessions function, which was one of the great features of Opera. But there are ways of replicating it adequately in 32 (see https://forums.opera.com/topic/10481/can-t-find-save-session-option). Bookmarks imported fine; this can be done during install; or Alt+P Settings, as lando suggested; or Main Menu > More tools > Import bookmarks and settings. This does bring in certain settings, along with bookmarks and sessions. For instance, my stored passwords imported OK, not autofill, and not my preferred search engine. It's not hard to restore these.

As lando said, v. 32 is rather pared down and clearly still under development--we're all beta testers all the time, no matter what browser we use. But I don't find it that much different to use from v. 12. The two things I really miss so far are tab stacking and using Shift+Click or Ctrl+Click to open a link in a new foreground or background tab, respectively.

I am the OP. In re-reading this thread I have a question re lando242's response above to my original post. viz. he suggests using SESSION BUDDY in Opera. I have just now (finally) looked into doing this and all that I am able to determine is that SESSION BUDDY is for the Chrome browser. Am I wrong? Can I not use this extension with Opera?

lando242, are you still there?

Anyone else?

Apologies for my unusual sequencing here -- I will start a new thread if the original context is lost...

You can use it in conjunction with another extension called 'Download Chrome Extension'. It allows you to install Chrome extensions in Opera. It doesn't work with all of them but it works just fine with Session Buddy.